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160 • Green Project Management

• Support public policy: For the public-policy maker, LCA can help
broaden the range of environmental issues considered in developing
regulations or setting policies.
• Support product certification: Product certifications have tended to
focus on relatively few criteria. LCA, only when applied using appro-
priate impact assessment, can provide information on the individual,
simultaneous effects of many product attributes.
• Provide information and direction to decision makers: LCA can be
used to inform industry, government, and consumers on the trade-
offs of alternative processes, products, and materials. The data can
give industry direction in decisions regarding production materials
and processes and create a better-informed public regarding envi-
ronmental issues and consumer choices.
• Guide product and process development: LCA can help guide manu-
facturers in the development of new products and processes.

Like any project, it’s important to identify which of these—or other—goals
and outcomes will define success.
Cradle-to-gate boundaries—excluding downstream activities past prod-
uct manufacture—have been called, and are being called, an LCA. Such
cradle-to-gate studies draw the boundary after the product manufacture
(see Figure 9.5) stage, but claims must relate to what was studied and not
be overstated. Such studies are helpful in improving the product supply
chain but may miss important impacts that occur at end of life.

inventory analysis
The next step is an inventory analysis, or LCI (life cycle inventory), defined
by the EPA as a process of quantifying energy and raw material require-
ments, atmospheric emissions, waterborne emissions, solid wastes, and
other releases for the entire life cycle of a product, process, or activity.
The steps for an LCI are as follows:

1. Develop a flow diagram of the processes being evaluated.
2. Develop a data collection plan.
3. Collect data.
4. Evaluate and report results.

The LCI is compiled from a variety of data sources, including: